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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Washington State Supreme Court Rules

By unanimous vote, the Supreme Court has ruled Tim Eymann's initiative unconstitutional. The initiative had two parts - reducing the sales tax and imposing a two-thirds vote by the legislature to raise taxes. It also may have had a back-door effect which the justices shut down, from KOMO news:

Three of the justices, writing in a separate concurrence opinion, wrote
that they believed that the initiative also violated the constitution in
another way: by essentially proposing a constitutional amendment -
which can't be done by initiative in Washington state.

My understanding is that this ruling may head off the levy cliff that threatened the funding for many district's including Seattle Schools. I got this point wrong. This ruling has nothing to do with the levy cliff.

The Court's ruling here. And, by the way, a HUGE shout-out to the wonderful kick-ass Washington League of Women Voters who are true public education champions. They have put themselves out there time after time.

FULL STOP,I can't really make sense of what you're trying to say. The League of Women Voters has no authority to decide what "C" needs. The League is a party to McCleary which is about the state fully funding education, rather than the local taxpayers, as the Constitution states.

The Levy Cliff is about Legislation that reduces the levy lid from 28% to 24% in 2018.It has nothing to do with this initiative or the sales tax.

OK, so where do you think the State will get the money for your pet project? Yes, from the tax payers and what is the most favored type of taxes? Property taxes, why? That's easy, because you can't move real estate out of is taxation status or jurisdiction. You can choose not to spend money or you can choose not to have a car, but you can't choose not to pay your property taxes. I suppose you could choose to live in one of the Seattle housing authority rentals and if things keep going the way they are, that's where most people might end up living. So the local taxing authority will jack up the % like you pointed out and in collusion with the progressives simply hand a % over to the State.

Now think about it. if the poorer districts had the money then all this would be moot, but they don't and most likely will never have enough local taxes to support the progressive's educational agenda. So that leaves all of us in wealthier taxation districts to put up the tab.

I feel for poor districts, but Seattle school district is not poor by anyone's measure! I would warn the State not to think they can just keep robbing King County to pay for other districts problems. As someone said in the other comment, C is mad as hell and not going to take it any longer.

I think one of the directors summed it up, in a recent letter to Nyland.

To paraphrase, progressive agenda goals are distracting our schools students from learning by spending valuable resources on unproven programs that assume one group is more disadvantaged than another when it comes to being educated. These programs are usually pushed on the district due to one groups subjective findings or feelings over facts. These programs in no particular order are,

In contrast, the district actions or lack of when it come to advanced learning is particularly troubling, please understand there's nothing wrong with the above programs as long as SPS is not prioritizing anyone of them above having the best curriculum and highly capable teachers. There's no proof that SPS can social engineer students into performing better using these programs, however I don't think many would disagree of the effectiveness of good teachers using proven curriculum and being allowed to teach it over feel good programs.

With C, when you say "OK, so where do you think the State will get the money for your pet project?" what do you mean by 'pet project'? Do you mean fully funding the public schools? Or do you mean something else?

Really happy to read this opinion. Question - I get why the sponsors of 1366 were trying to defend its constitutionality, but why was the State? Does the state have to defend all voter initiatives, even clearly unconstitutional ones?

Education Acroynms

Advanced Learning - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.

ALO - Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program

AP - Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.

APP - Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.

ASB - Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.

AYP - Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.

BEX - Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).

BLT - Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.

BTA - Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.

CAICEE - Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.

CSIP - Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.

EOC - End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduationESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.

e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.

FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy

FRL - Free and reduced lunch.

FTE - Full Time Equivalent

FY - Fiscal Year

Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).

HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation

HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law

IA - Instructional Assistant

IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.

IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education

MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.

MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration